Niagra Falls thrills me

Photo by Mai Ngoc Chau

Honestly, I did not plan to go to Niagra Falls though I know that my friend, the one I have visited since Friday, lives in Syracuse, New York which is just two and a half hours driving from the wonder shared by America and Canada. She had asked me to go with her this time but I wanted to go there next summer before I leave America for home. However, her friend, who picked me up at the bus station, encouraged me to go there this time. My Vietnamese fellow Fulbrighter when knowing that I was in Syracuse on Facebook also told me that I should take this chance to go. While I was still asking myself if I should go this time, my friend received an email from her school, which said there would be a free trip to Niagra Falls for international students on Saturday morning. The trip would conclude on the same day and I can join the trip. At that point, I found no reason for not to go there.

On Saturday morning, my friend and I walked to her school to join dozens of students of various nations which include Japan, China, South Korea. We departed around 8:30 after the guide from the Syracuse University English Language Institute, which organized the trip, disseminated some common rule like “We will leave the fall at 4 p.m.”, “Never come across the border.”

Photo by Mai Ngoc Chau

When our bus approached the Niagra Falls, I noticed from afar a cloud of steam on the surface of the river. At that time, my feeling told me that that cloud of steam might be the product of the falls.

Photo by Mai Ngoc Chau

I was almost speechless when I first saw breathtaking beauty of this falls whose name later I learned is Horseshoe Fall. Why does the nature so much favor the border between the United States and Canada? Niagra Falls, according to Wikipedia, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls of Canada’s side and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls.

Photo by Mai Ngoc Chau

Canada is so close that at first I thought the other side is of the United States, too. I took this photo from the Observation Deck where people can view the whole Niagra Falls. It takes just one USD per person to enter the Observation Deck.

Photo by Mai Ngoc Chau

The Observation Deck has an elevator which brings people to the boat tour named “The Maid of the Mist”, a 15.5-USD round trip into the frothing waters beneath the American and Horseshoe Falls.